


Until the End

by Emma_writes_things



Series: Winter Soldier [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, F/M, Feels, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 12:02:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1509761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emma_writes_things/pseuds/Emma_writes_things
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a Tumblr post. Tony finds out that the Winter Soldier killed his parents, and is on a park bench in Manhattan. What happens next makes history, remembered Until the End.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Until the End

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry a head of time.

It was all there, in hovering holographic letters above his smashed coffee cup. The file claiming that the ‘Winter Soldier’ caused the ‘accidental’ deaths of Howard and Maria Stark.  
The room spins, and his sight blurs. Jarvis is yelling at him in the background, incoherent in his rage he snaps his hands out and then suddenly he is flying over Manhattan. It’s the middle of the night, he should have been in bed with Pepper, sleeping off his last attack, and instead here he is, flying towards a small beacon located in the middle of Central park. He can’t think he can’t stop the need burning in him to hurt, to kill the man who took his parents; he ignores Jarvis, yelling out a harsh Mute before his suit locks onto his location.  
There, right there on that bench, under the big maple tree at the end of the pond, the swans sleeping in the reeds beside him. There lies his parents’ murderer, the bastard who took them from him. He won’t wake him, or should he? Let him know the pain of what is about to happen to him. His repulsors land him directly beside the body.  
His arm reaches out of its own accord, glowing with the power of the arc reactor. One shot. Impossible to miss.

And then it meows.

The fuck kind of a man meows?

He lowers his arm, raises his visor and it’s not the man who meows, it’s a kitten. A small scraggly and thoroughly unimpressed kitten that is curled up in the obviously broken metal arm that’s wrapped in scraps of clothing and tied into a cradle. It was looking at him, staring with his green eyes that were gummy and foggy from sleep. He looked at it, then at the man, and really looked.

His hair was long and greasy, kept under a NYR baseball cap, he looked thin, even with all the baggy clothes that hung and pooled against the bench. The light from his reactor cast deep shadows across his face, marring what should have been beautiful but was covered in small scratches, and deep purple bags. 

“His body is deeply malnourished, and his arm is in a state of extreme disrepair, it has reached the capacity to poison his blood if he does not have it removed.” Jarvis whispered this too him, obviously having broken the command. “James Bucky Barns is the man before you; the Winter Soldier was classified as having been killed in the battle against Hydra.”

The kitten meowed again, disturbed by the British voice suddenly in the air. Tony turned away from the broken man, “Call Cap, tell him what happened, where he is. Do not tell anyone else of what happened here, is that understood Jarvis?”

“Sir.” Is the only response as Tony leaves the broken man behind and flies home for a bottle or four of scotch, the only way to drown the memories.

It is only twenty five minutes later when Steve runs to the bench, out of breath he watches Bucky, his best friend, alive and breathing on the bench. He reaches a shaking hand out and rests it on his right shoulder squeezing to make sure he is real. It takes longer than it should, too many heart beats to count, but he opens his eyes. 

They stare blankly for a moment, blinking to focus on the blurry face in front of him. Steve holds his breath at blue eyes widen, then close. Bucky takes a deep breath, and opens them again. 

“I knew you. I know you, I know…” his eyes water, tears collecting and slipping out of bloodshot eyes.

“I’m with you until the end, you’re my best friend.” Steve smiles, his heart racing as Bucky shakes his head.

“I’m a monster. I can’t be your best friend.” He closes his eyes, turning his head to rest against the bench. 

“You are my best friend. Have been for 95 years, that’s not going to change any time soon. Now get up, I’m going to take you home.”

Bucky opens his eyes to stare at him again; he knows this man, knows in the very depths that he can be trusted, that they are what they are to each other. They are best friends; they would die for each other. He shakes off Steve’s hand, twisting awkwardly on the bench to sit up. His left arm is useless, held up only by a scarf he found on the bench a few weeks ago. There was no way to repair it, so instead he made it home for the kitten he found, feeding it with whatever he could find. 

Steve stretched out his hand. “Let me help you, friend.”

The kitten meowed at him, staring at the hand before nuzzling into Bucky. He looked at the kitten thinking for a moment, if he was able to help this kitten, couldn’t he accept help? He stood, joints aching and cracking as he stretched. He shook Steve’ hand, looking down at their obvious differences.

Clean and blemish free, bruised and scabbed. So different, and so familiar at the same time.

“Friend.” He says, shaking their hands. “Friends.”

When Steve smiles, that same goddamn smile, the world doesn’t seem that dark anymore.

 

Pepper wakes when the sun has just reached the bed, warming her and making the need to pee even greater. She hops out of bed, making a note that Tony isn’t there, or in the shower, and when she goes for coffee in the kitchen there is a broken bottle in the sink that she stares at. She sighs, far too early to get angry at Tony for something; she settles for coffee and indulges in his Captain Crunch cereal. She knows where he would be, but when she makes it up the four floors to his workshop it is not what he expects.

A bottle is empty and smashed beside an equally smashed suit. Its metal twisted and melted into odd shapes. She looks at him, watches as he finished another bottle and lets it drop form the couch he is laying on. Its then that she hears him sobbing, face buried in the cushions. Dummy is awkwardly patting his leg, adorable little robot. She walks over to him, careful to not step on the broken glass and sits by him.

He says nothing, doesn’t move for a moment before pulling her closer and crying into her lap. She coos, and tells him its okay as she rubs in back, scratching to calm him down. When the sobbing subsides into sniffles, she steadies her hand on his back.

“What happened?” she whispers in the stillness. He rolls over onto his back, staring up at her his hands clenched around an album.

“My parents are dead. The man who killed them is dead. I don’t…I can’t…” He closed his eyes and drew in a shaky breath, “I dreamt you were dead, that I didn’t save you. I just…” The tears spilled over, his lips trembled as he spoke. “I can’t lose you Pep, I would die.”

She says nothing for moments, taking in what he can’t say and what she knows he wants to say, and smiles at him. She moves to lay beside him, half on him, and pulls him as tight and close as she can to her. She kisses him, tasking whisky and salt on his lips. “I love you, Tony; I’m with you until the end. Nothing can change that, and no one will take me away from you. No one.”

He nods against her and wraps his arms around her, as his tears and alcohol induced sadness gets the better of him. He falls asleep against her, snoring and mumbling incoherently. Pepper watches over him as he sleeps.

Miles away in an apartment, a kitten is stretched in the sunshine, while Bucky, now clean shaven and bathed, sleeps on a mattress for the first time in weeks, a blanket wrapped tightly around him. Steve drinks coffee and watches the day outside of his window, right beside where Bucky sleeps, only a few feet away in case he needs anything. 

The two are different, and very much the same, they would do anything for their best friend. They would stand with them, until the end.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry again. If that was too much, I'm sorry, if you want more. I will do my best.  
> it was just sitting there, and I had to do it.


End file.
